"Primevally Powerful Plant". Bismarckia nobilis, Bismarck Palm, Taman Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
"We passed through enormous groves of this primevally powerful plant. The strong wind blew through its mighty foliage, striking it together with mighty clattering and clapping." Thus the first European description of this palm tree by Johann Maria Hildebrandt (1847-1881) during his adventuresome exploration voyages of Madagascar (1872-1881), off the east coast of Africa.
Hildebrandt had been a fine machine or engine maker but he'd lost an eye making it hard to continue in that work. Instead, he turned his energies to botany. Soon he was traveling in Africa on a very meagre income. During his many adventures he put together a large collection of specimens and kept a fascinating diary as well. Hildebrandt died on Madagascar of a bleeding stomach ulcer, but his work arrived in Germany regardless. It came into the hands of the great palm expert, Hermann A. Wendland (1825-1903). The latter named this enormous and wonderfully silver palm tree for Otto von Bismarck, the great nineteenth-century unifier of Germany.
Today, Bismarckia nobilis in both its 'green' and 'silver' forms can be found pantropically. The 'silver' stand in this photo is in the spacious Taman Tasik Perdana, the Lake Gardens of Kuala Lumpur. In the foreground is a pretty lily pond. It reminds of the origins of these Gardens in the late nineteenth century. At that time this was all a marsh through which trickled the Sungai Bras-bras. Around the end of the 1890s, that streamlet was dammed, and the Gardens were developed with prettily landscaped lakes and ponds. It's a very well-kept place, and every time I walk here these palms catch my eye and admiration. Indeed, when the wind is only a bit strong the clatter of its foliage is remarkably loud and quite unique.
"Primevally Powerful Plant". Bismarckia nobilis, Bismarck Palm, Taman Tasik Perdana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
"We passed through enormous groves of this primevally powerful plant. The strong wind blew through its mighty foliage, striking it together with mighty clattering and clapping." Thus the first European description of this palm tree by Johann Maria Hildebrandt (1847-1881) during his adventuresome exploration voyages of Madagascar (1872-1881), off the east coast of Africa.
Hildebrandt had been a fine machine or engine maker but he'd lost an eye making it hard to continue in that work. Instead, he turned his energies to botany. Soon he was traveling in Africa on a very meagre income. During his many adventures he put together a large collection of specimens and kept a fascinating diary as well. Hildebrandt died on Madagascar of a bleeding stomach ulcer, but his work arrived in Germany regardless. It came into the hands of the great palm expert, Hermann A. Wendland (1825-1903). The latter named this enormous and wonderfully silver palm tree for Otto von Bismarck, the great nineteenth-century unifier of Germany.
Today, Bismarckia nobilis in both its 'green' and 'silver' forms can be found pantropically. The 'silver' stand in this photo is in the spacious Taman Tasik Perdana, the Lake Gardens of Kuala Lumpur. In the foreground is a pretty lily pond. It reminds of the origins of these Gardens in the late nineteenth century. At that time this was all a marsh through which trickled the Sungai Bras-bras. Around the end of the 1890s, that streamlet was dammed, and the Gardens were developed with prettily landscaped lakes and ponds. It's a very well-kept place, and every time I walk here these palms catch my eye and admiration. Indeed, when the wind is only a bit strong the clatter of its foliage is remarkably loud and quite unique.